As with many other old stones in Cornwall, there was a belief that gold lay buried beneath it. A story says that some time ago a man who had a recurring dream of a crock of gold, dug a pit around the base of the stone. He found nothing but the stone collapsed and has only been re-erected in recent times.
This stone’s alternative name is “Claverhouse’s Stone” from a tale that this is where John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount of Dundee (“Bonnie Dundee” in the old songs) fell following the Battle of Killiecrankie in 1689, where Highland forces who fought for King James prevailed over the army of William of Orange. It was also the last time that the famed ‘Highland Charge’ worked in battle. Dundee was shot and mortally wounded, and a legend grew up that he died beside the stone. Seton Gordon’s ‘Highways and Byways in the Central Highlands’ tells us:
As he fell heavily from his noble dun-coloured horse and lay upon the ground, his life ebbing fast, he asked “How fares the fight?” He was told “The day goes well for the King, but I am sorry for your Lordship.” Dundee then whispered his last words, “It matters less for me, seeing that the day goes well for my master.”
In his book Mysterious Wales Chris Barber writes that, “people used to throw pins into [the well] and make wishes”.
Traditionally the site of a conflict between the Scots and English in Robert the Bruce’s time – the site of the battle was close by here.
The stone originally came from Lookabootye Brae (NS912911) and was sacred to the pre-Christian deity Mannan, according to a plaque on the old Tolbooth. A tradition also connected it with King Robert the Bruce.
One Stanton Harcourt resident told me that some years ago, her neighbour, an old man, now deceased, who had lived his whole life in the village, had been told by his father that he knew the location of one of the ‘lost’ stones. It was buried beneath the what is now the Stanton Harcourt cricket pitch. Anyone got an instrument for reading subterranean densities?
The witch the stone was named after was Kate MacNiven, a local woman who was burned at the stake here in front of a reported huge crowd of locals. Scotland comes 2nd only to Germany in the witch burning super-leage. The only difference being we Choked them first so they wouldn’t suffer. Thoughtful don’t you think?
In her article called Where Witches Used to Meet, (I can’t find where this was published) Mollie Mordle-Barnes wrote:
The Rollright stones have been a favourite meeting place for witches for centuries. In Tudor times detailed reports of witches’ sabbaths were compiled by a witch hunting commission in Oxford. In the reign of Charles I one of these witches was hanged for attempting to murder her sister’s child by means of witchcraft. She was said to have attended numerous sabbaths at the stones and others held on Boar’s Hill, just outside Oxford.
The same article alludes to a notorious witches sabbath held at the stones on May 12th (Walpurgis night) 1949.
A third theory (see below for the other two) could be formed from a tradition heard by J.O. Halliwell and repeated in his book ‘Rambles In Western Cornwall’. This held that the bank was formerly higher, with its inner slope fashioned into rows of rough seating, similar to the medieval ‘Plen-an-gwarys’ [medieval ampitheatre]. If this was not the result of a later re-use of the site, the possibility exists that Bartinne was a sacred enclosure; indeed, legend tells us that no evil spirit can enter it. Fires were lit during the worship of the Celtic sun-god Belenos and it is worth noting that the name Bartinne has been interpreted as deriving from the Cornish ‘bre tanow’ -hill of fires.
Morthoe, I have heard that local legend says that the murderers of Sir Thomas a’Beckett are supposed to haunt this coastline on horseback.
Aaron’s Golden calf was supposed to be buried in the hill. Another version says it is a hoarde of Viking treasure guarded by a ghostly calf which can be heard bleating.
They got the name from a local tale about how the Devil met his match in Thor. Thor was resting on Treyford Hill nearby when the Devil began to jump from one barrow to another, the noise woke Thor who told him to clear off. The Devil started to taunt Thor saying he was too old to jump like that himself. The irritated Thor scored a direct hit with a stone just as his visitor was mid jump, hitting him in the midriff. The Devil took off vowing never to return. In other versions it is Thor who gets the stone thrown at him
An underground passage was said to run from Offington Hall (now gone) and the ring guarded by large snakes insode the tunnel.
A highwayman before he was hanged vowed not to sleep in his grave. Somewhere near the middle of a road near Cissbury ring the corpse was buried, but next morning was found lying on top of the grave. The dead Highwayman would not rest and his career continued. On the command of an occupant of his carriage a driver drove straight towards the highwayman that tried to rob them, only to pass straight through him! Even worse those passing by the grave would see at the last minute a body in the road and unable to stop would runover it with a terrible clump. When they went back noone was there!
Local folklore says that there is a rift in the earth at the camp where the dead from a battle were thrown into.
Wayland Wood is the traditional setting for the ‘Babes in the Wood’ story, by the way (“Wailing Wood” – you’re supposed to hear them wailing).
The stones are just off the Bannerdown road (‘Holy Hill’), where tradition has it that St.Augustine met the British Bishops. This road is part of the Fosseway Roman road.
Said to ensure fertility, particularly to newly married couples, but only after they have squeezed their naked bodies through the hole.
In chamber 3 you will see the Witch of Wookey who, according to legend, was turned to stone by a monk from Glastonbury Abbey.
There is a legend concerning a cow associated with the nearby Mitchells Fold stone circle, Rhiannon`s account of which can be read here:Mitchells Fold
‘Ancient Places’ by Prof Glyn Daniel and Dr Paul Bahn (1987, Constable and Company) mentions a folklore tale that says infertile women can be cured by touching the stones with their bare breasts. In the Eighteenth Century the local young people used to meet near the King Stone on Midsummer’s Eve for dancing and feasting.
According to local lore, this stone was part of a group of three circular settings known as ‘Druids Alters’. According to the Rev Haldane, who gave this information to the Ordnance Survey, the remaining stones of this circle were removed around 1842, leaving only one stone.
Two ‘classic’ megalithic stories are attached to the Hoar Stone barrow: that if anyone tries to drag the stones away, they will return of their own accord when no-one’s looking – and that the main stone (’the Old Soldier’) goes down to the village stream to drink on Midsummer’s Eve.
(mentioned in J Hawkes’ Shell Guide of British Archaeology)
The Tump is one of the Cotswolds’ largest round barrows, standing 9 ft high and about 100ft in diameter.
John Reynolds, in his (now defunct) website told how one of the Dukes of Beaufort had a witch buried alive in her house – and that’s what Nan Tow’s tump is. He added that perhaps the story originates from the (assumed?) discovery of a skeleton in a cist in the barrow. Traditionally the witch was supposed to have been buried ‘upright’. But the scheduled monument record on MAGIC suggests there’s no evidence of the barrow having been excavated.
The Nene Park (aka Ferry Meadows) information board says:
One story maintains that they are draughts from arrows shot from Alwalton churchyard by Robin Hood and Little John; another claims that the stones, which are nicked in the tops like arrows, are a memorial to St Edmund who was killed by the Danes’ arrows. The most plausible explanation is perhaps that they mark a track to a crossing point on the River Nene, where the Abbot of Peterborough granted the Abbot of Bury toll-free passage for the stone being transported from the quarries at Barnack to build the Abbey of St Edmund.
This stone is said to have saved the people of Llanrhaeadr from a huge Dragon that lived at the top of the waterfall (Pystll Rhaeadr). The dragon used to fly down the valley and eat the people of Llanrhaeadr. The dragon wasn’t choosey of who he ate, both young & old, male & female alike.
One day the people decided to visit a local wise woman to find out how to kill the dragon. She told the to weave a cloth in red which would attract the dragon like bulls are attracted to red cloth today. She told them to stick iron spikes in the stone at the bottom of the valley and then cover this with the red cloth they had made. The people of Llanrhaeadr did this, and the next time the dragon came to eat the villagers, it was attracted to the stone and attacked it. The poor dragon impaled itself in the spikes and died.